Each year at this time, many folks consider making New Year's resolutions, making a decision to change something in their lives. Usually we pick something to do or not to do to make our lives better. It may be deciding to lose weight or to eat healthier or be about work or play. But usually it is about doing or not doing something.
How about this year making a decision about "being" rather than doing? Proverbs 23:7 says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." So what do you believe about yourself? Do you really believe that God loves you as a dearly loved child? If you really did in the core of your being, how would your life be different?
I just heard a line from an old song, Blue Skies. Maybe you remember it, "Blue skies over me, nothing but blue skies do I see..." And then there's this line, "When you're in love, everything's right." Think about when you're in love. Doesn't the world seem like a better place? Don't we feel like a better person when we feel loved? The world may not be a better place but we think it because when we feel loved nothing else matters....
What do you believe? Do you believe that you are loved completely and absolutely without reservation? Or is there something working like a filter, screening out that complete and absolute part? Years ago, as I was working through soul healing after my Prophetic Deliverance, I discovered I really didn't believe in John 3:16. I had been a Christian for almost 20 years, but when put under my own interrogation light, I really didn't believe God so loved me. But a closer look at Romans 8:35-39 shows us there is nothing that can separate us from God's unfailing love. So why do we believe we are unloved, unlovely and unlovable? It is because we believe a lie.
We believe what we see and experience in our natural lives defines who we are. If I am not loved, then I believe that I am unlovable. If I am abandoned, alone or rejected, then I am not worthy of love. From these sources we have a whole encyclopedia of self descriptions and identifications... all based on lies. It is what we think we know and believe about ourselves that makes it seem like God doesn't love us. The truth and reality is He does and there is nothing we can do or be that makes him not love us, but our experience tells us otherwise. So who do we listen to and believe? Most likely we not only listen to ourselves but we actually focus on and worship what we believe. We are so enthralled with the lies we believe we make it really difficult to believe what God believes.
In all my years of working with people in pre and post deliverance care, the ones who are most resistant are the ones who are filled with self-hatred. Why they fight to hold on to the self-loathing is beyond me. I too lived with self-hatred and self-loathing. It was deeply hidden by a lovely façade, but when it came time to renovate and rebuild, the master carpenter showed me what was really there. I knew it had to go, not with more self-hatred. I had to change what I believed and let God love me. He always had, always did and always will, but I was refusing his love based on my web of lies.
So what do you believe? What does your life show that you really believe? How is your world? Are there blue skies even when it's cloudy? Is everything right inside because you know you are so loved?
Maybe make a New Year's resolution to be!
"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8: 38-39.
